The 28-year-old animator was born and raised in South Africa and completed his first animation at the age of ten. After finishing his schooling he embarked into 2D and 3D animation for local post production facilities, such as AnimMate, Ministry of Illusion and The Refinery. He also worked on various advertising campaigns for prominent brands such as KFC’s Chicky and Vodacom’s meerkat. Barker then moved to the US to develop his passion for animation and completed an animation course through Animation Mentor.

New York’s acclaimed animation company, Blue Sky Studios, took on Barker as a temporary animator for HORTON, where he animated crowd cycles for some of the film’s sequences. He went on to full animation, animating most of the main characters for a number of shots for different sequences leading to him being one of the eight animators that worked on the “Whoville” intro sequence - a spectacular scene which introduces audiences to the “Who’s” in “Whoville”.

The film is about an imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey) who hears a faint cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Although Horton doesn’t know it yet, that speck houses an entire city named Who-ville, inhabited by the microscopic Whos, led by the Mayor (Steve Carell). Despite being ridiculed and threatened by his neighbours, who think he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to save the particle… because “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

It has been over fifty years since writer and cartoonist Dr. Seuss published the perennial favourite book, and the makers of ICE AGE, together with comedy giants Jim Carrey and Steven Carell, now bring it to life on the big screen. This incredible motion picture transports audiences into Dr. Seuss’ extraordinary imagination, through state-of-the-art CG animation.

While in South Africa, Dan Barker will continue to show his support for the film through various print, in-studio TV and radio interviews as well as visiting local animation schools to lecture, motivate and mentor the next generation of animators.

HORTON HEARS A WHO! is a 20th Century Fox release and will be distributed by Nu Metro Films in South Africa to cinemas nationally on Friday, 28 March 2008.

I've seen the film already and as much as I'm not an animated-movie kinda guy, I really enjoyed it. Besides it's universal themes of acceptance amnong the human race, the animations were quite impressive and the story told very well. The pairing of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell was also awesome, they both played their parts amazingly.